Stern Reportedly Rules Out Late-Night TV Talk Show

By BILL CARTER

Published: January 5, 1994

Howard Stern has decided not to do a late-night television talk program, an executive associated with the radio performer said yesterday.

On Friday night, Mr. Stern did a New Year's Eve special that is expected, when all the accounting is done, to take in the most revenue ever for an entertainment event on pay-per-view television. The content of that program, which was criticized for its raunchiness, may have been partly responsible for some cooling in discussions between Mr. Stern and the Fox network, said the associate, who asked not to be named, but far more significant were recent actions by the Federal Communications Commission.

Over the last year, the F.C.C. has fined Mr. Stern's radio employer, Infinity Broadcasting, because of the content of his regular program; in recent weeks, it has reportedly tried to block purchases of new radio stations by Infinity.

"Howard said he and Fox couldn't agree on a format and he didn't see how he could work it out to do a radio show and a television show on the same day," the associate said. 'Scared Off'

Mr. Stern has two more years on his radio contract. The associate added that the chairman of Fox, Rupert Murdoch, "was scared off to a degree by the F.C.C. situation." Betsy Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Fox, said the network would have no comment on Mr. Stern.

Final figures for the New Year's Eve special were not to be available until today, but Cathy Duva, an executive with the pay-per-view production company Main Event Television, said the number for Mr. Stern's program would surely eclipse the pay-per-view entertainment-event record of 270,000 homes, set by a New Kids on the Block rock concert. She estimated that 350,000 homes "is probably in the ball park," for the Stern program. With that figure, at a price of $39.95 per home, the program would rival championship boxing matches as a pay-per-view revenue earner.

Don Buchwald, Mr. Stern's agent, said that with Mr. Stern's best-selling book, "Private Parts" (Simon & Schuster, and the pay-per-view program, he expected the performer to gross more than $40 million in 1993, "not even counting what he does on radio."

Ms. Duva said that some viewers had complained that the pay-per-view program was too raunchy, but that others had complained that it wasn't raunchy enough. Mr. Buchwald said the show was designed for Howard Stern listeners. "All the critics and executives who thought differently didn't pay attention to whom Howard said he was aiming this show for," he said.

Asked if Mr. Murdoch had expressed concern about the content of the program, Mr. Buchwald said, "I couldn't comment on that."

The executive associated with Mr. Stern said it was now more likely that the performer would pursue a movie deal, possibly with a studio like Paramount, which is planning a new television network that might need a late-night show in the future. "Then he wouldn't have to rush a television show on the air," the associate said.